Our relaunch was a gorgeous day for an outdoor tent city. It felt so good to see smiles on faces, children playing, groups sitting on the grass eating, and the busy buzz of shoppers connecting with vendors. It was a day of joy on the farm and it was what we needed to lift our heavy hearts and fill us with hope that soon we can once again have our indoor market.
A combination of large tents made up the main tent area. Across the driveway and along the edge of the lawn were numerous pop-up tents.
Mason’s Lobster Roll and the Powhatan Fire/Rescue Department were our food vendors.
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It seemed so right to invite the fire department back for a “good” day on the farm and let them have a fundraiser. The children enjoyed seeing the trucks and fire fighters up close and personal. There were lots of little “future” fire fighters running around with smiles on their faces and plastic helmets on their heads.
The hours for our outdoor market is Thursday – Friday, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Saturdays 8-12. (Weather permitting). Once we are back into a permanent structure, we will go back to our original plan of all week shopping.
Behind the scenes…..to prepare for our outdoor market, we took this……
and made this to as a shelter for the refrigerators and freezers for our meats (beef, poultry, pork and lamb), cheese, butter and other dairy products.
Samson welcomes you to the barnyard and he is so glad to be home. He was taken to the Stauffer farm after the fire where he and his little family were treated with the best of care.
The anticipation and excitement was high for the launching of Quarterfield Markets. It was the first indoor farmer’s market in the area with 42 vendors and 8 outdoor vendors making its grand debut on April 5. The plan was to be open 6 days a week matching the hours of Hertzler Farm and Feed. We had worked hard rennovating an existing room at the farm supply store creating a welcoming and unique vendor space.
We painted yellow shelving black, created new shelving using pipe and boards, reoiled pine board floors, and found creative ways to repurpose and give new life to shelving and items we had around the store and farm. It was a lovely inviting space.
The dynamite team-the shakers and bakers-behind the market. The market was the vision and dream of our daughter Jill Hostetter (on right) and granddaughter Lauren Hertzler (on left) quickly caught the vision.
Our team of vendors was exceptional and chosen with care. All products had to be homemade, handmade, hand produced/crafted or created. Each vendor had their own designed space with a centralize checkout station. They fully embraced our concept and were so excited to promote and be a part of our grand adventure.
The overall view of the main market space.The food area we called “The Pantry”.Lamb, beef, poultry, and pork.
The day of the launch was gorgeous and over a 1000 people came to enjoy the day and shop.
Instead of shopping carts, we had shopping baskets.
There were food trucks and a barnyard with chicks, a bunny, sheep, a goat family and a trio of baby pigs.
“Too Dippin’ Good”, a dessert food vendor.Archer’s BBQ: The best barbecue in town!Beverage Vendor: “Sippin’ Spot”Outdoor Pop Up VendorsYou can drop your knives, clipper blades, scissors, almost anything that needs a sharp edge at the store and he will pick them up and sharpen them.Our Transportation Manager: Obe Hostetter
Exactly one week later the market laid in ruins, burned to ashes.
On Wednesday evening we invited the vendors to a meeting on our front lawn and also to give them opportunity to see the devastation first hand. The mandate was clear. We would rise again and rise quickly. The date was set for one month, an almost unseemingly possiblity, with a tent market. Ideas were tossed around and the vendors pledged their support and help.
We were alerted to the fire at 6:54 p.m. on April 12, a Saturday night. It was a night we will never forget and crawled into bed at 2 a.m. on Sunday morning full of grief and exhaustion, mixed with lots of questions about the future and a sinking feeling of total helplessness. Sunday morning we realized it was not just a bad dream but a horrible stark reality. A stinky, acidity, smoky smell lingered in the air and the view from the kitchen window was witness to the stark reality of the overwhelming task before us. A firetruck had spent the night and was still maning the smoking ruins.
Our retail store-the main room.Looking in the front door of the store.
There was no way we could drag ourselves to church. We were physically and emotionally drained and needed to be just us-a family in grieving. In the afternoon an amazing thing happened; cars and pickups started pouring in filled with caring friends and neighbors wanting to help.
For the next two weeks there were 25-45 people each day sorting through the ruins, picking up trash, cleaning and drying photos and personal items.
We had a storage room where Jill and I were storing household items and keepsakes as they were in the process of moving to Powhatan.
Track loaders, dump trucks, and excavators arrived. The farm shop and baler were also destroyed but most of the tools were salvagable and had to be moved to another building.
The burned up round baler that was in the shop. They had just finished maintanence on it earlier in the afternoon and had it ready for this year’s hay season.Only a handful of treasurers were spared. An old milk can from Gene’s home in Denbigh.On the left is a quilt made by my Grandmother Heatwole (Fannie Belle Heatwole) and on the right by my mother (Fannie Showalter Heatwole). I had put them in plastic totes to “protect” them in storage.A bed spread made by my mother from scraps of material from my “homemade” dresses as I was growing up!!!We had to build a new space for the pressure tank for our well water system.The shop with the burned out storage area on the left.
An existing warehouse had to be readied to serve as new storage for the feed store. There was so much to do and so many willing hands to do it.
Repairing the dock.
Mealtrain was set up to provide food and for one full month I did not fix a meal. Many people benefited from those wonderful, delicious meals delivered with love. Go-Fund-Me and private donations provided the necessary funds to keep us surviving. Our church had a community barbecue fundraiser. We needed so much and so much was given. Boxes and boxes arrived from Amazon with office supplies and equipment. One Amazon driver said, “I have never delivered so many boxes to one place”. Local businesses helped us get our new office set up and flooring put in. Another got our water restored, another replaced an electric pole and another removed some trees.
A team of fifteen students came from Liberty University for a Saturday workday. After a hard day of work, a full belly of food and relaxing on the lawn they enjoyed a hay ride.
People were truly the arms of Jesus holding us up and helping us get back on our feet. The community of Powhatan and beyond truly was amazing.
A friend and former pastor came from Pennsylvania to sit with us. It was what our weary souls needed. Thank you Tim.
The transformation has been amazing. It is now been a month and the ruins are cleaned up. We have felt a strong mandate from the community to rebuild. Social media buzzed with a desire to see us rebuild and to pledge to help that happen.
Our feed store reopened in five days in a revamped version. The Farmer’s Market relaunched yesterday, exactly one month from the fire, in an outdoor tent setting.
An Old Hickory storage shed came in two days after the fire. It has become our new office and sales for feed, lawn and wildlife seeds, fertilizer, lime, shavings, hay and straw.
Our vendors from our Farmer’s Market, that had been open for only one week, gathered on our lawn several days after the fire and the mandate from them was clear. They were solidly behind us and wanted to be a part of a relaunching. A blog post about the relaunching will be coming soon. After the fire, channel 8 and channel 12 (local news stations) came out and interviewed us. One reporter said, “We heard about the fire and began to look at social media. We saw the support of the local community and noted that something special was going on and wanted to cover it.”
Relaunch Day-May 10: The market is set up and ready for business.
It was an amazing Relaunch day with absolutely perfect weather, lots of excitement and crowds of people. Until a permanent facility can be built, the market will be open Thursday and Fridays 8 am – 5 pm and Saturdays 8 -12 noon weather permiting.
We can never express our thanks adquately. Caring and sharing is never about public praise and so we are refraining from publicly naming people or businesses. You know who you are. May God bless you and please accept our humble and grateful thanks
This puzzle piece that was found among the ruins seems a fitting ending to this post. I had a puzzle library of over 500 puzzles that people could check out. The fire was furious and almost nothing survived it’s consuming fury. But the few finds were surprising and this puzzle piece was one of them. A fragile thin piece of cardboard, charred black, but still intack. I just wonder how! Sometimes it takes more than a fire to bring total ruin. From the ashes, we will rise.
The following verse is a comforting promise from God….good can come out of bad…. joy and beauty where they are ashes.
“To bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes, the oil of joy instead of mourning, and a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair.” This verse is often interpreted as a promise from God to replace sorrow and despair with joy and beauty.” Isaiah 61:3
I am a country gal who enjoys writing, gardening, baking and my family. My husband and I own a retail feed store and it keeps us active and busy. We love living in the country and on our beef farm. We retail natural, Angus, dry-aged beef in our store and a local "natural" store.
My writings, called "From A Grandma's Perspective" are mostly inspired from our five delightful grandchildren. These along with "Life Perspective" can read on our web page at www.hffinc.com under the "Who We Are" tab.
By the way, I love hearing from people who read my blog!!!
